It ain't what you do, it's the weigh that you do it!

The spy bugs in the bins story is covered in all the local papers with the Shropshire Star focussing its attention on Audlem and the concerns expressed by residents as they find the bugging devices in their green and grey wheelie bins.

The Star spoke to Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council about the Audlem Online story yesterday. The Council admitted using the small concealed devices to monitor waste disposal. Equipment on council rubbish trucks reads the chips' serial number and when waste is collected it weighs the bins when they are lifted.

Executive Director of Direct Services David Marren said: "Weighing the contents of recycling bins offers better value for money for your council tax by enabling us to target particular areas of the borough which we can see are not performing well." The council said the devices were not sneaky as people had known about them for years as they have been in brown compost bins. In today's Nantwich Guardian, Mr Marren also claimed the council had been open about it. He said: "The chips have been mentioned in the board reports. I think we have been up front about it."

The excuses are unlikely to convince local residents as the council has always denied brown bins to rural areas like Audlem so no-one locally has any experience of bugged brown bins. And while there may be the odd avid reader of Crewe & Nantwich Council board reports in Audlem, and elsewhere, the reports are hardly best sellers.

Many of the letters to the local papers say it isn't the bugs they are upset about, it's the way they were inserted into the bins without any information or warning, hence the outrage throughout the area. In other words, with the introduction of secret weighing devices it's like so much else in life – it ain't what you do, it's the weigh that you do it!

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